Computer networks have been remarkably successful at processing, communicating and storing of vast amounts of data. As companies today become more accustomed to storing important company information on their data network, the value of these networks and the data they store continues to grow. In fact, many companies now identify the data stored on their computer network as their most valuable corporate asset. Accordingly, it is an important function of a network administrator to, from time to time, backup to a long term storage medium, the data on the corporate network.
Today most backup systems operate by having the network administrator identify a time of day during which little or no network activity occurs. During this time the network administrator turns the network over to a backup system and the data files stored on the computer network are backed up, file by file, to a long term storage medium, such as a tape backup system. Typically the network administrator will backup once a week, or even once a day, to ensure that the back up files are current.
Although such a backup process may work well to create a copy of the data stored on the network, it is a time consuming and labor intensive process. Moreover, it is a cumbersome process that often is inappropriate in many environments. For example, as more and more computer networks begin to operate twenty-four hours a day seven days week, it is continuously more difficult for the system administrator to identify a block of time during which the majority of network resources may be turned over to the backup procedure. Moreover, as computerized network systems begin to store more information as well as information that changes regularly during the course of the work day, the value of a backup system which only backups once a week or once a day is fairly reduced. In fact many companies now rely on the corporate network to store almost all of its business information, and the loss of even a portion of the information stored on the network during the course of a day may result in a substantial cost for the company. Accordingly, systems which only backup periodically are of a reduced value to a company.
Moreover, although the current backup systems work well for putting data on to a long term storage media system, they often store data sequentially on to media, like a magnetic tape, losing the file structure of the data, and making it difficult to retrieve information without having to reinstall all the data previously stored on the tape. Thus, if a portion of the data is lost, it is often difficult to restore just the data that was lost, and often the system administrator is forced to decide whether it is worth the cost of retrieving the lost portion of the data.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for backup systems that are less obtrusive, may continuously update the data stored on a network, and make it more facile for a system administrator to retrieve data, or portions of data, stored to a computer network.